The website of Children's Author, Jackie Yeager

Manuscript Monday #30: Write the Scenes you Can

Manuscript Monday is a series of blog posts which chronicle the life of my latest manuscript. It follows the journey I take to turn my week old baby story idea into a fully grown, polished novel. Take the journey with me. 🙂

We all get too busy to write sometimes. The difference between those who finish their manuscript and those who don’t is drive. If you have the drive to write your story, then you’ll get it done no matter what the obstacles. You’ll make it a priority. You’ll cut back on TV time. You’ll wake up an hour earlier or stay up and hour later. You’ll let the laundry slide for a day longer. You’ll write while you’re in the car waiting for your kids to come out of practice. You’ll write during your lunch break at work. No excuses… you’ll make the time to write somehow.

I know. I know. Sometimes, it’s just impossible. We all have unusual family obligations that creep up or unexpected deadlines at work. We have sick kids or we get sick ourselves. But here’s the thing. If days turn into weeks and weeks turn into months without writing, you’ll never finish that manuscript.

And I’ll never finish my manuscript either.

So knowing all this, I forced myself to work on my draft. As you know, time is at a premium right now, but I know that’s not a great excuse. I also haven’t figured out how the next scene in my story is going to play out. It’s been a bit of a roadblock in fact. So, instead of attempting to write that scene this week, I skipped ahead to a scene I’ve been thinking about that comes near the end of the manuscript. I don’t often write this way, but I gave it a try.

And I made progress! It was actually a fun scene to write. And the best part is, I kept writing several scenes after that. Who knows if these scenes will stay intact, especially as I fill in the first draft, but at least I wrote.

So that’s where I am at Week 30 of this WIP. I’m still writing the first draft. But I’m not discouraged at all because I AM writing. And really, what’s better than that? Good luck on your writing endeavors this week as well. I know it’s tough. But I also know it’s worth it too.